How to beat BT's price rise

Check out what you can do to avoid paying more with BT.

BT has welcomed in the New Year with a price increase of up to 6.5% for its phone and broadband customers.  

The telecoms giant announced the changes in September but they have only now taken effect.

Millions of customers will be impacted with hikes on line rental, some calls, broadband and phone packages as well as calling features.

Standard line rental for example has gone up by 3.5%, from £15.45 to £15.99 a month. That makes BT the most expensive provider, alongside Virgin.

But perhaps the more controversial move is that BT is now charging £1.75 a month for previously free calling features like BT Answer 1571 and BT Privacy with Caller Display.

BT has rejected claims that the raft of price rises have been implemented to offset the massive investment it has made into TV broadcasting with BT Sport and superfast broadband infrastructure last year.

But if you’re a BT customer that has been affected by the hikes, that’s little comfort when you are facing a heftier bill each month.

So what can you do to avoid paying more?

How to beat BT's price hikes

In order to beat the increased cost of line rental you could choose to pay for it in advance. BT charges £141 for the full year's line rental up-front, which will save you £50.88 over the whole year. Doing this will allow you to avoid the BT Privacy with Caller Display charge as well.

But the best way to make a saving is to look at alternative providers to see if you could be better off switching.

Unfortunately new rules which allow customers to leave penalty-free if their bills go up because of a mid-contract price rise only apply to new contracts taken out from January 2014.

So BT might charge you for leaving in the middle of your contract. You will need to factor this in when looking at how much you can save.

Best broadband and phone deals

Here are ten of the best deals you could switch to, which I have put together using  broadbandchoices.co.uk. The table is arranged by cheapest first year cost.

*EE/Orange/T-Mobile customers only

** Existing Sky TV customers only

The cheapest deal comes from Primus with its Saver Broadband + Phone. The deal works out cheaper than the rest if you apply via broadbandchoices.com and get a £15 credit applied to your first bill. The great thing about this deal is that broadband is truly unlimited and isn’t subject to fair usage policies as is the case with some other deals.

And if you want anytime calls thrown into your package Primus also offers the best deal with its Saver Broadband + Anytime Calls. This deal again works out cheaper when you apply via broadbandchoices.com and get a £15 credit applied to your first bill.

The best value for faster speeds comes from Virgin Media. Its Broadband 30MB + Phone M deal offers speeds of up to 30MB.

You can take a look at our article The UK's best and worst broadband providers to get an idea of which providers could be better for you.  And to compare deals on broadband available in your area, go to broadbandchoices.co.uk.

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